Every American
schoolchild learns the tragic story of the assassination, just as
the long nightmare of the Civil War drew to a close, of President
Abraham
Lincoln. They know of the shot fired by John Wilkes Booth into
the
brain of the great President as he watched Our American Cousin
at
Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. They know of Booth's dramatic
leap
from the presidential box to the stage, his cry as he ran of "Sic
Semper
Tyrannus!," his escape on horseback, and of his own death by bullet
twelve
days later in a burning Virginia barn.

Far fewer
Americans, however,
know that Booth's evil deed was part of a larger conspiracy of
Confederate
sympathizers--a conspiracy whose targets included Vice President
Johnson and Secretary of State Seward and which had as its goal
destabilization
of the entire federal government. Fewer Americans yet know
the fascinating story of the trial of eight conspirators before a
specially
appointed military commission in Washington. [CONT.]